Focus

Predatory Gambling Interests Fund Their Own Science

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This June 2008 piece from Salon.com delves into how the predatory gambling industry uses some of its huge profits to fund scientific studies. The industry took a lesson from the tobacco industry and decided it was not going to claim that gambling addiction did not exist. Instead, it set up its own research arm to publish favorable research. The American Gaming Association, the predatory gambling industry’s top lobbying group, created the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) in 1996 and casinos make it a point to keep it flush with money. Recently,

the NCRG announced $7.6 million in new funding commitments for the next five years, including $2 million from Harrah’s, $2 million from MGM Mirage and $1 million from International Game Technology, the largest slot machine manufacturer in the world. Its board of directors includes executives from MGM Mirage, Harrah’s and the casino company Boyd Gaming Corp., as well as Judy Patterson, executive director of the American Gaming Association.”

The NCRG’s research has a common theme: that addicts of every kind, whether they are dealing with gambling or illegal drugs, have a similar brain chemistry and the casinos are not at fault for their problem. There is little research into the addictive nature of slots and other electronic gambling machines and why people who play video machines seem to get addicted faster.

Gambling with Science

CkirbyPredatory Gambling Interests Fund Their Own Science
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Pennsylvania Casino Profiting from Underage Gamblers

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Pennsylvania’s Rivers Casino was fined $150,000 in July 2011, partly due to incidents related to underage gambling occurring on the premises. Amazingly, the lawyer representing Rivers urged the state’s Gaming Control Board to “consider stronger penalties for the teenagers who try to illegally enter casinos, rather than only boosting fines for the gaming establishments.”

Rivers Casino Fined For Underage Gambling

CkirbyPennsylvania Casino Profiting from Underage Gamblers
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Illinois Casino Says “Members” Are 20% of Clientele, But Make Up 80% of Revenue

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The predatory gambling industry does not always readily admit that the vast majority of their profits come from a small portion of their customers. However, in this article from the Chicago Tribune below, a casino marketing officer does just that. The reporter writes that “managers are…pushing casino membership, with special previews this weekend for VIPs and Des Plaines residents who were the first to join the club.” Typically, marketing officer Suzanne Trout said, members make up 20 percent of casino clientele but generate 80 percent of the revenue.” They know who the out-of-control gamblers are in their facilities.

Des Plaines Casino Goes Vegas to Corner Chicago Market

CkirbyIllinois Casino Says “Members” Are 20% of Clientele, But Make Up 80% of Revenue
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Thrift or Debt: Which Direction is Right for Texas?

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The Texas Thrift Coalition is a nonpartisan, volunteer group of leaders and organizations whose goal is to promote thrift and encourage savings as a path to family prosperity in Texas. In 2011, the group published Thrift or Debt: Which Direction is Right for Texas? which found: Texas families face a savings crisis; anti-thrift institutions are trapping Texas families in debt; Texans see a danger in the rise of the anti-thrifts; Texans oppose the expansion of state-sponsored gambling; and Texans want to save more. The coalition issued the following recommendations:

To Oppose Debt

  • close payday lenders’ “lucrative loophole”
  • protect military families from payday lenders
  • vote “no” on casino gambling


To Support Thrift

  • to create a Texas “Savings Ticket”
  • promote alternatives to payday lenders
  • bring back national thrift week

Thrift or Debt – An Appeal to the Texas Legislature From the Texas Thrift Coalition

CkirbyThrift or Debt: Which Direction is Right for Texas?
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Survey Reveals Only 6% of Problem and Pathological Gambers Seek Help

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In this Ontario population survey, researchers discovered that only 6% of problem and pathological gamblers sought treatment for gambling addiction (including attending self-help meetings or accessing self-help resources.) They also acknowledge that more research needs to be done on “the barriers to seeking treatment, both objective and perceived, encountered by gamblers at different levels of problem severity, as well as the triggers that motivate them to take the step of actually seeking help.” Interestingly, the researchers also found that while the use of lifetime gambling treatment services was higher than in other North American gambling surveys, for Ontarians with a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence, the rate of treatment seeking was much lower. They speculate that this may be partially due to the fact that “gamblers may be struggling with more, different, or in some cases, more daunting obstacles to seeking treatment compared with people with alcohol problems.”

Treatment Seeking Among Ontario Problem Gamblers: Results of a Population Survey

CkirbySurvey Reveals Only 6% of Problem and Pathological Gambers Seek Help
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The Tobacco and Predatory Gambling Industries Partner Up (in Secret) to Make Huge Profits

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In August 2011, the Reno News and Review publishing the article below detailing how two local Chambers of Commerce in Nevada served as front groups for an influential study that was secretly paid for by the tobacco industry. Since its publication in 1996, the study has been cited repeatedly by the predatory gambling industry in its argument to oppose smoking bans in casinos. It partnered with the tobacco industry to ensure that both would continue to make huge profits of the misfortunes of their customers. This information came to light with the recent publication of the book Casino Women by Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones. 

Smoke and Mirrors – Big Tobacco and Big Casino Sold Nevadans a Bill of Goods

LesThe Tobacco and Predatory Gambling Industries Partner Up (in Secret) to Make Huge Profits
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More Access to Gambling Leads to More Suicides, Study Finds

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A study by Dr. David Phillips, of the University of California in San Diego, has found that cities with increased gambling have higher suicide rates, and according to Dr. Phillips, this is no coincidence. It is already known that gambling losses can drive people to do things they normally wouldn’t, for example, embezzle large amounts of money to pay for their debts. However this study shows that gambling losses also causes an increased risk for suicide, which is seriously troubling news considering how much gambling has expanded in the US in recent years. Below is a copy of the study, as well as a New York Times article summarizing its findings.

Elevated Suicide Levels Associated with Casino Gambling

NYT Suicide Rate Higher in 3 Gambling Cities, Study Says

LesMore Access to Gambling Leads to More Suicides, Study Finds
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The Criminalization of Slot Machines in the 20th Century Was Effective Policy

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This TIME Magazine article from 1953 offers a glimpse at the period following World War II when states recriminalized slot machines. “Though the state legally controlled them, the slots acted, increasingly, like a virus in the body politic, dividing Idaho citizens against each other, changing the shape of towns, altering social life, wounding business and giving whole communities a surrealistic civic philosophy.” By legalizing slot machines, the government was still unable to control the negative impacts: restaurants, doctors, dentists and other local businesses began to go broke as a result of slot clubs siphoning patrons and their money away and “as a result, in rapid and indignant succession, Idaho’s bigger cities began banning slot machines.”

Time Article, “Idaho: Out, Damned Slot”

CkirbyThe Criminalization of Slot Machines in the 20th Century Was Effective Policy
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By Misleading Players, Slot Machine Design Spurs Problem Gambling

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This article explains how reel electronic gambling machines (EGMs) have been designed to mislead players and have directly contributed to the high rate of problem gambling: “Unbalanced reel design must be a major factor, if not the major factor, in the maintenance of problem gambling principally because the gambler unconsciously believes he or she cannot lose.” Unlike table games, EGMs offer widely different odds of winning, which the authors compare to loaded dice or rigged carnival games. “The fact that the players do not know the rules makes the reel gambling machine unique amongst gaming devices. Not only are the players ignorant of the rules but the rules vary from machine to machine and neither the gaming industry nor the regulators disclose them. As far as transparency is concerned, the standards applicable to reel gaming machines are totally out of step with all other forms of gaming.” The authors make a strong case for establishing uniform standards, banning biased, “virtually-mapped” reels on EGMs and providing more transparency regarding the player’s chances of winning.

Unbalanced Reel Gambling Machines

LesBy Misleading Players, Slot Machine Design Spurs Problem Gambling
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The Johnson Act of 1951

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In 1951, Congress enacted the Transportation of Gambling Devices Act. The Act, more commonly known as the Johnson Act, has been amended several times during the intervening years. Most notably, the Act makes it unlawful to knowingly transport a gambling device to a state where such a device is prohibited by law.

Johnson Act

CkirbyThe Johnson Act of 1951
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